Steve Jobs
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A Siri-controlled Apple TV may be on the way
Soon you might be able to simply ask your Apple TV to start playing 'House of Cards' rather than fumbling through a series menus. Code found in iOS 7.1's software development kit indicates that Siri is one its way to a new device, likely Apple's set-top box. In the operating system's documentation, the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad are represented by "1" and "2." The most recent files also include a new device indicated by a "3." For our non-developer friends following along at home, that means the digital assistant is headed to a different product. While the 3 could potentially represent something entirely new (like the fabled iWatch), Apple has previously used the number to represent its TV product in code. It's also currently being used in several iOS-based Apple TV apps.
John Sculley regrets ousting Steve Jobs and other news for April 18, 2014
It's Friday! Slip on a pair of loafers and browse today's Apple news in a leisurely fashion. Because it's Friday. And you're a boss. In an interview with Times of India, former Apple CEO John Sculley admitted that ousting Steve Jobs was a mistake. "I think there could have been a way, in hindsight, where Steve and I did not need to have a confrontation, and we could have worked it out," he told the Times. "And, perhaps the board could have played a bigger role in that. But you can't change history." John seems to spend a lot of time saying, "I fired Steve Jobs once." Candy Crush developer admits it can't own "candy." Not long ago, the makers of Candy Crush wanted to trademark the word "candy." They've withdrawn the application in the US, but managed to win it in Europe. Still, it seems there's some wiggle room, as the company has let apps Banner Saga and CandySwipe keep those monikers. Sugar crush! Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has posted a "super, double top-secret of the iPhone 7. He even names his source.
Video Flashback: Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall following the intro of the iOS SDK
When Apple rolled out the App Store in July of 2008, it gave developers the ability to take an already revolutionary device like the iPhone and take it to unforeseen heights. While mobile apps up to that point were often clunky affairs that featured mediocre graphics, poor user interfaces, and relatively limited functionality, the App Store ushered in a wave of polished and innovative apps that forever changed the way we use mobile devices. Looking back, rolling out an App Store seems like a no-brainer, but Steve Jobs, as it turns out, was actually opposed to the idea at first. Recall this excerpt from Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography. Apple board member Art Levinson told Isaacson that he phoned Jobs "half a dozen times to lobby for the potential of the apps," but, according to Isaacson, "Jobs at first quashed the discussion, partly because he felt his team did not have the bandwidth to figure out all the complexities that would be involved in policing third-party app developers." But after months of developers and users alike clamoring for an SDK, not to mention a thriving jailbreak community that was becoming increasingly hard to ignore, Apple had a change of heart. The company finally announced an SDK for iOS at a special media event held on March 6, 2008, about 9 months after the release of the original iPhone. In an interesting look back, the video below shows Steve Jobs, Scott Forstall, and Phil Schiller answering questions during a Q&A session that followed the introduction of the iOS SDK. Funny enough, the App Store that Steve Jobs initially opposed to would quickly become one of the iPhone's main selling points, as evidenced by the ubiquitious "There's an app for that" ad campaign. As it stands now, there are now over 1 million apps on the App Store, with consumers having downloaded over 60 billion apps over the last 5 years and 9 months. So let's just be thankful that Steve Jobs had a change of heart, because imagine life without an App Store, as described by Jobs himself during WWDC 2007. The full Safari engine is inside of iPhone. And so, you can write amazing Web 2.0 and Ajax apps that look exactly and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone. And these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services. They can make a call, they can send an email, they can look up a location on Google Maps. And guess what? There's no SDK that you need! You've got everything you need if you know how to write apps using the most modern web standards to write amazing apps for the iPhone today. So developers, we think we've got a very sweet story for you. You can begin building your iPhone apps today.
Who else could direct the Jobs movie and what would it be like?
As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Sony balked at director David Fincher's request to have $10 million upfront to helm the Steve Jobs biopic based on Walter Issacson's book. Fincher is best known for directing "The Social Network," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and two episodes of "House of Cards," among other films and a number of music videos. Who do you think should direct the Steve Jobs film? Here's what the TUAW staff (and in some cases, spouses) have to suggest, including some directors we'd bring back from the grave. Let us know your picks in the comments: JJ Abrams: There will be a massive lens flare every time Steve shows up on screen. Wes Anderson: Bill Murray would play Jobs. The whole movie would be too long, make no sense, have no point, and everyone would gush about how awesome it is. Tim Burton: The film would be stop-motion animation, and every role would be voiced by Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Frank Capra: The final scene would have Zuzu exclaim: "Whenever we sell another iPhone, an angel gets its wings." Alfred Hitchcock: Jobs would create the Apple I in a Lower East Side apartment in New York while witnessing the murder of Atari across the way, then would be accused of stabbing the MITS Altair in the back at the UN, culminating in a drive to Bodega Bay from Mt Rushmore, where the Angry Birds attack Wozniak before they both reach Silicon Valley with strange tech geeks on a train. It's such a tense situation that they create the iPhone to get past Dialing "M". Oh, and Bill Gates takes the fatal shower, instead of Steve Jobs, who sorely needs one. Peter Jackson: We'd get three movies about the iPhone and iPad, then ten years later we'd get three more just about the original Mac. And he'd make out like Tim Cook and Jony Ive had been there the whole time. Then he'd make up some other character completely and arbitrarily cut Woz out of the story. Stanley Kubrick: A Performa would try (and fail) to murder Jobs. He'd then have a vision of a black monolith in his bedroom. BOOM: iPhone. David Lean: There would be a long track shot of iPad production lines fading into the distance, interrupted by a loud train whistle with a shot Steve Ballmer in a Soviet Army uniform railing against apps, ending with a task force blowing up the bridge of Samsung. George Lucas: If he directed it, 20 years later he'd spend three totally pointless films focusing on Jobs's childhood and teen years. He'd also retool his original Jobs film to make it look like Bill Gates shot first. Brett Ratner: Every time prototype hardware displeased Steve, he'd blow it up. And in a bold bit of casting, the Steves will be played by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Steven Spielberg: The film would focus far more on Jobs the family man than Jobs the mogul. Critics would describe it as "the feel-good hit of the summer." John Williams does the soundtrack. Jobs carries a bullwhip everywhere for some reason never adequately explained. Martin Scorsese: Every other word out of Jobs' mouth would be an F-bomb, Bobby DeNiro would play John Sculley, and Apple would be headquartered in Manhattan. Quentin Tarantino: Every word out of Jobs's mouth would be an F-bomb. Samuel L. Jackson would play Steve Wozniak, Leo DiCaprio would play Jobs, and the film would be about their adventures in the Southern California criminal underworld as they tried to obtain seed funding for Apple. James Cameron: Everyone would be painted blue and it would take place entirely on the Titanic. Leo DiCaprio would still play Jobs. Joss Whedon: He'd just kill Jobs all over again in the most heart-wrenching manner possible after slowly picking off everyone you'd ever care for in the film. The Aaron Sorkin-penned script would be tossed for one co-written by Steven Moffat and George R.R. Martin. Photo from Getty Images
Don Melton on Steve Jobs and other news from April 10, 2014
Former Apple engineer Don Melton posted a heartwarming and fascinating post late on Thursday highlighting his memories of working with Steve Jobs. The entire post is well worth reading in its entirety as it provides a more up-close and personal glimpse into a side of Jobs that doesn't often get a lot of ink. The post is packed with a number of interesting stories regarding the development of Safari (the team at Apple Melton worked on) along with a few memorable anecdotes detailing Jobs' kindness, his sense of humor, and of course, his uncompromising pursuit of excellence. One quick story with sharing is how the idea of putting Safari's URL progress bar into the browser's URL address view came about: Steve didn't like the status bar and didn't see the need for it. "Who looks at URLs when you hover your mouse over a link?" He thought it was just too geeky. Fortunately, Scott and I convinced Steve to keep the status bar as an option, not visible by default. But that meant we had a new problem. Where should we put the progress bar to indicate how much of the page was left to load? Before, the progress bar lived inside the status bar. So we needed to find it a new home. We discussed all sorts of silly ideas including making it vertical along the edge of the window. ... The room got quiet. Steve and I sat side-by-side in front of the demo machine staring at Safari. Suddenly we turned to each other and said at the same time, "In the page address field!" Smiles all around. Which I followed with, "I'll have a working version of that for you by the end of the week." Over-committing my engineering team, of course. But I didn't care. I had just invented something with the Big Guy. True, it was a trifle, but there's no feeling like sharing even a tiny byline with Steve. Again, the entire post is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in one of the tech industry's all-time great visionaries. Other quick hits from Thursday includes: AltConf2014, the alternative conference to WWDC, has announced its speakers for this year. AltConf will be held across the street from WWDC in San Francisco on June 2-6. Entry is free and is on a first-come, first-served basis if you have a ticket. Donations are voluntary. Speakers include Michael Lopp, Andy Stone, Brianna Wu, Saul Mora, Josh Michaels, Mike Lee, Orta Therox, and Aaron Hilleglass. Remember Boxee? If you were a member of the forums during its heyday, the service is notifying users that a hack caused data for more than 158,000 users to be exposed. This includes names, emails, full message histories and partial login credentials.
You can eat the face of Steve Jobs, if that's your thing
In the years since the passing of Steve Jobs we've seen countless tributes in virtually all forms, but the edible work of chef -- nay, artist -- Wilhelm Rodriguez is particularly amazing. Using your standard pizza ingredients, Rodriguez, who currently works at Papa's Pizza in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, can whip up some stunning pies, but his most impressive creation to date may very well be the Apple-shaped Jobs pizza you see above. Rodriguez's other work includes horror movie villains, cartoon characters, and even everyday customers who wander into the popular pizza portal. If you're ever in the neighborhood, ask for an Apple pizza with actual apples, just for kicks. [via Neatorama]
WWSJD?
WWSJD? He probably would have parked in a handicapped spot. Spotted at Apple HQ. [Photo credit: Greg Dunlap]
Funny moments with Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs has been called many things: genius, visionary, and of course, temperamental. However, every now and then Steve gave the public an example of his sense of humor. As you might expect, it was biting, sharp and smart. Here's a collection of funny moments from the late Mr. Jobs.
2010 Steve Jobs email sheds light on product roadmap, mentions Apple TV with apps, subscriptions, and a "magic wand"
The great thing about these Apple/Samsung lawsuits is that it brings to the forefront a treasure trove of internal Apple information that we would otherwise have no access to. From never before seen iPhone prototypes to internal Apple emails, there's certainly no shortage of fascinating information to digest. The latest such example is a doozy, and comes in the form of a Steve Jobs email sent in late October 2010 ahead of Apple's Top 100 retreat. Originally unearthed by The Verge, the email provides a lot of insight into what Apple's product roadmap looked like at the time, while also revealing that keeping tabs on Android remained a top priority. Below are a few highlights. Note that this was from October 2010, meaning that the iPhone 4 was still relatively fresh on the scene. Here we see reference to the iPhone 4s (which at the time Jobs referred to as the "'plus' iPhone 4"), along with plans to release an LTE iPhone by mid-2012. Apple fell a little behind on that goal as the iPhone 5 wasn't released until September 2012. There's also mention of iPhone 5 hardware and prototypes or renderings from Jony Ive. Also noteworthy is that the iPhone strategy discussion portion of the retreat was spearheaded by Joz (Greg Joswiak) and Bob Mansfield. With respect to the iPad, Jobs wrote that Apple's plan was to release the iPad 2 in 2011 before competitors could even catch up to the original. The Apple employees involved in discussing the company's iPad strategy included notable names such as Bob Mansfield (once again), Dan Riccio, and Jony Ive. Also of note is that showcasing a working display for the iPad 3 was on the agenda. The iPad 3 of course added a Retina Display and was released in March of 2012. To that end, we can see that Apple's product roadmap at the time stretched out about 17-18 months, and even further when we factor in how many months went into developing the iPad 3 display -- which is all the more reason why folks demanding the next big thing from Apple would be advised to chill out a bit. With respect to iOS, here's what Jobs had to say. Ah, so nostalgic to see a reference to Scotty! For context, iOS 5 was internally codenamed Telluride, while Jasper was iOS 4.2 and Durango was iOS 4.3. Interesting to see that Jobs was well aware that iOS in a number of ways lagged behind Android. While Jobs, or anyone from Apple for that matter, would never admit as much publicly, it goes to show that Apple execs aren't delusional and take sober assessments of the competitive landscape. Speaking of Android, Jobs' section on MobileMe notes that Apple's strategy was to "catch up to Google cloud services and leapfrog them." Jobs also noted that Google's cloud services were "way ahead of Apple in cloud services" for contacts, calendars, and mail. The October 2011 retreat also saw demos of iOS 5 features such as "Find my Friends" about a year before launch. The section on Apple TV is particularly interesting given the ongoing battle for control of the living room, not to mention an incessant stream of rumors regarding Apple's alleged plans in the TV space. Here we see that Apple back then was keen on adding more content options (which they've since accomplished) and that the idea of TV subscriptions was being tossed around as well. Particularly interesting is the blurb about potentially adding apps, a browser, and a "magic wand" to the Apple TV. The idea of an Apple TV capable of running apps on its own has generated a lot of interest and speculation over the past few years, and it certainly seems like it would be in Apple's best interest to move in that direction. As for what the "magic wand" refers to, that's anybody's guess but likely refers to some type of Wii type controller. Of course, any discussion of an Apple TV housing an app or gaming storefront should also mention Apple's November 2013 acquisition of PrimeSense, an Israeli-based company whose 3D sensor technology went into Microsoft's original Kinect. The entire email, which is all rather fascinating, can be viewed below or over here at The Verge. Steve Jobs Top 100 retreat email
Steve Jobs email: "2011: Holy War with Google"
Steve Jobs was never one to mince words, which makes recently released emails from the former Apple CEO not all that surprising. In documents that have come to light as part of Apple and Samsung's second California trial, the Wall Street Journal highlights a October 2010 email from Jobs, in anticipation of Apple's Top 100 retreat, where he categorized Apple's battle with Google as a "Holy War." In case you're unfamiliar with the event, Apple some years holds a "Top 100" retreat attended by the company's most important 100 employees. Adam Lashinsky, who originally shed light on the retreat in a 2011 Fortune article, explained that the grouping is composed of the 100 employees Apple would theoretically want to keep if forced to start from the ground-up. The retreat is replete with meetings and presentations, while also giving employees in attendance to hobnob with Apple executives and learn first-hand what type of products Apple has in the pipeline. That said, the above email relays a few more of Jobs' planned talking points for the retreat, including an appreciation for the fact that Apple was/is in danger of falling prey to the innovator's dilemma. In the same email, Jobs identified issues for the executives overseeing Apple's iOS mobile software. He said the company "needed to catch up to Android where we are behind." He cited "notifications, tethering and speech" as three areas, while writing that Apple could leapfrog Android with features like Siri, Apple's speech-recognizing digital assistant. Samsung's lead attorney John Quinn revealed the emails from Apple's co-founder to highlight a key point of Samsung's legal strategy: that Apple's real fight is with Google. Google's prominence in the case has introduced a new element to this latest round of the Apple-Samsung battle. Apple, of course, maintains that the case has everything to do with Samsung. Hopefully we can look forward to some more revelations this Friday when proceedings are slated to continue.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for April 1, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Today is Apple's 38th birthday
On Thursday April 1, 1976 Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne started Apple Computers. Their first product was the Apple I computer kit, built by hand by its designer Steve Wozniak. The Apple I consisted of just a motherboard, leaving users to provide their own keyboard, monitor, and case. It went on sale in June of that year for $666.66, or $2,773 in today's dollars. Now Apple is 38 years old. 456 months, 1,983 weeks, and 13,879 days of existence. In the years since its founding, the company has released groundbreaking computers from the Apple II to the Macbook Pro, constantly pushing its products to new levels of innovation. These innovations revolutionized MP3 players (launching the iPod in 2001), tablets (the iPad in 2010), and smartphones (the iPhone in 2007). Of the founding pioneers of the company, two are still alive today. Steve Jobs left the company in 1985 after a power struggle with the board of directors, but returned in the late 90s to help save the company. Without Steve Jobs, Apple may very well have gone bankrupt. Under his leadership as CEO Apple introduced the iPod, iPad, iPhone, iMac, and its own digital content retailer, iTunes. Jobs passed away in 2011 following a struggle with pancreatic cancer. Steve Wozniak left Apple in 1987 and continued his work as an entrepreneur, starting a new company called CL 9 which developed the first programmable universal remote control in 1987. Beyond his business pursuits Wozniak also taught 5th grade and appeared on Dancing with the Stars. He continues to work part time with Apple to this day. As for Ronald Wayne, his story is a slightly sad one. Wayne was an important part of Apple's founding, writing the original partnership agreement and drawing the company's first logo. For his work he was given a ten percent stake in the company, which he sold shortly after the company was founded out of fears he might be responsible for any debt the company accumulated. He reportedly sold his shares in the company for $2,300, or $9,657.88 in modern dollars. If he had held onto his ten percent he would be a billionaire today. In 2010 he explained the sale to the San Jose Mercury News. "I don't waste my time getting frustrated about things that didn't work out," he says. "I left Apple for reasons that seemed sound to me at the time. Why should I go back and 'what if' myself? If I did, I'd be in a rubber room by now." Happy birthday, Apple. You've been a source of innovation and technological foresight for almost four decades now. We can't wait to see what the next four decades will bring.
Want to own the computer that inspired the Apple II? Visit eBay now
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it's also an important part of innovation. In keeping with that idea we'd like to draw your attention to this wonderful rare eBay listing. A seller in Louisiana is offering up a working SOL-20 computer, one of only 10,000 ever produced. Currently the listing is going for $1,275. Many readers won't be aware of the importance of the SOL-20 to Apple's legacy. According to legend (aka Walter Isaacson's book Steve Jobs) in 1976 at the first annual Personal Computer Festival, held on Labor Day weekend, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak arrived with the Apple I in a cigar box. While Jobs walked around the exhibition hall, he was reassured that the Apple I was better than the competition in terms of functionality. There was just one thing nagging at him; the SOL-20. According to Isaacson, Jobs was confident that his product had the best circuitry, but the SOL-20 was better looking. It came in a beautiful metal case, with a built-in keyboard and power supply. When compared to the scrappy Apple I, the SOL-20 looked more like a professional machine. Apple I Apple II The jump in Apple's esthetic design between the Apple I and Apple II is obvious when the two are compared side by side. The SOL-20 may be largely lost to time, a footnote for enthusiasts and historians, but for a brief window you have the opportunity to own one. At bare minimum, look at your Mac's beautiful modern design and thank the stars for the dose of inspiration that helped push Jobs and Wozniak towards the future.
Emails reveal that Steve Jobs angrily called Sergey Brin over Google's recruitment of Apple's Safari team
During a period spanning 2005 through 2009, Apple and several other high-profile tech companies effectively signed off on anti-poaching agreements, whereby they agreed not to recruit employees from one another. The participants included Apple, Google, Adobe, Intuit, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Intel. News of these agreements first made headlines back in 2010 when the aforementioned companies settled a lawsuit on the matter brought on by the US Justice Department. In 2011, the story made headlines once more when a group of software engineers filed a class action lawsuit against those same companies alleging that the anti-poaching agreements operated to limit their negotiation power, ultimately resulting in lower salaries. In the most recent peek into the backhanded deals that once limited employee mobility in Silicon Valley, PandoDaily this weekend published a boatload of new information about the case along with a number of emails demonstrating that Steve Jobs was none too thrilled with Google's efforts to recruit Apple engineers. Steve Jobs angrily calls Sergey Brin On February 13, 2005, Google co-founder Sergey Brin fired off the following email regarding an "irate" phone call he received from Steve Jobs regarding Google aggressively recruiting Apple's Safari team. In truth, court documents show that Google was primarily interested in a star engineer on Apple's Safari team. A few days later, Brin sent the following email to a few Google employees, including former Google and current Apple board member Bill Campbell. The email relays another "irate" phone call Jobs made to Brin. So I got another irate call from jobs today. I don't think we should let that determine our hiring strategy but thought I would let you know. Basically, he said "if you hire a single one of these people that means war." I said I could not promise any outcome but I would discuss it with the executive team again. I asked if he expected us to withdraw offers and he said yes. In reviewing the data below again, I do think this could be treated as not just an employee referral since he referred essentially a whole team. So a compromise would be to continue with the offer we have made to REDACTED but not to make offers to any of the others unless they get permission from Apple. In any case, let's not make any new offers or contact new people at Apple until we have had a chance to discuss. -- Sergey Notably, court documents reveal that Apple and Google's anti-poaching agreement with one another went into effect on March 6, 2005, not too long after these emails were exchanged. Note that in late February of 2005, Apple VP of Human Resources Danielle Lambert sent the following email to Apple's recruiting group. Please add Google to your "hands-off" list. We recently agreed not to recruit from one another so if you hear of any recruiting they are doing against us, please be sure to let me know. Please also be sure to honor our side of the deal. The deals agreed to by the companies involved worked as follows: Hiring employees who independently expressed interest in a position was okay. Cold calling employees at other companies, however, was not allowed. Particularly interesting is that the anti-poaching agreements in question encompass many more companies than previously publicized. For instance, some of the other companies that appeared on Google's "Do Not Cold Call" list included Paypal, Comcast, and Genentech. With respect to Apple, their "Do Not Cold Call" list, as of July 2009, mentioned upwards of 27 companies, including Microsoft, AMD, Foxconn, Nvidia, Best Buy, Mac Zone, and more. This trial is certainly bound to get more interesting as it adds even more details to what is already a rather intriguing case. You might recall that previous documents brought to light relay that Jobs in 2007 threatened then Palm CEO Ed Colligan with legal action if Palm didn't agree to stop recruiting Apple employees. Further, Jobs in 2007 emailed Eric Schmidt -- who at that time was Google's CEO -- asking that Google's recruiting department stop recruiting an Apple engineer. Schmidt's response promised that he would "get this stopped." Lastly, make sure to head on over to PandoDaily for the full run down of just how deep and broad these anti-poaching agreements ran.
Christian Bale is director's top choice to play Steve Jobs in Aaron Sorkin's upcoming biopic
The JOBS movie starring Ashton Kutcher didn't exactly garner many positive reviews, but a second effort at a Steve Jobs biopic may very well be worth paying attention to. In mid-2012, Sony Pictures announced that it hired famed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to write a movie screenplay about Steve Jobs. With titles like A Few Good Men and The Social Network to his credit, Sorkin's involvement gave the project a whole lot of buzz. Now comes word via The Wrap that director David Fincher (who has been in talks to direct the film) would like the caped crusader himself, Christian Bale, to take on the role of Jobs. According to the report, Fincher, who previously directed the thoroughly enjoyable The Social Network, will only join the project if Bale is tapped to play the part of the Apple co-founder. Sorkin, who won an Oscar for writing Fincher's Facebook drama "The Social Network," based his script on Walter Isaacson's bestselling authorized biography. That book was, in turn, based on more than 40 interviews that author had with Jobs, as well as interviews with friends, family and colleagues. The film consists of three long scenes regarding Apple's buzzed-about product launches, including the Mac, NeXT (after Jobs had left Apple) and the iPod. Production could begin before the end of the year, though an early 2015 start is more likely, as both Bale and Fincher will be busy this fall promoting their respective movies, "Exodus" and "Gone Girl." Sorkin, who perhaps is best known for his work on The West Wing, reportedly finished the script for the movie this past January. During a November 2012 interview, Sorkin said that the script would consist of just three scenes that all take place backstage prior to important product announcements.
Eddy Cue calls accuracy of "Haunted Empire" into question
One of the few pieces of interesting information found in Yukari Kane's new book about Apple -- Haunted Empire -- details how Eddy Cue became one of Steve Jobs' trusted lieutenants. The passage in question reads: In one version of a story that he told everyone, he was plucked out of the IT department by Jobs during a meeting in which he had dared to voice an opinion about the topic at hand. When Jobs looked at him and told him to shut up, an undeterred Cue spoke up again, causing Jobs to throw a pen at his forehead. Cue, who by then figured he had nothing to lose, braced himself and offered up his opinion for a third time. This time, he won Jobs's approval. From that moment on, Cue became Jobs's guy... As it turns out, the veracity of the excerpt in question has been challenged by none other than Eddy Cue himself. Earlier today, 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo emailed Cue asking if the aforementioned excerpt was true. Cue, in classic Apple executive fashion, answered succinctly: "No it's not." All in all, this isn't terribly surprising given the plethora of other shortcomings the book presents. You might recall that Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday called the book "nonsense", to which Kane responded with a blurb of her own. For Tim Cook to have such strong feelings about the book, it must have touched a nerve," Kane said. "Even I was surprised by my conclusions, so I understand the sentiment. I'm happy to speak with him or anyone at Apple in public or private. My hope in writing this book was to be thought-provoking and to start a conversation which I'm glad it has. Touched a nerve? Perhaps, or maybe a more likely explanation is that the book truly is nonsense. My own review aside, the book has seemingly garnered nothing but negative feedback from those who have slogged through and read it.
Steve Jobs sobbed in the wake of Antennagate
In a recently discovered video on 99u, former Apple VP of Marketing Communications Allison Johnson details what it was like working in Apple's marketing department under the always watchful eye of Steve Jobs. Recalling her time at Apple, Johnson describes how there were two words within Apple's marketing department that were considered dirty; "brand" and "marketing." The reason, Johnson explains, is that the word "brand" in Steve's mind was too closely linked to "artificial" things like television advertising. Instead, Jobs wanted to focus more on people's relationship to the product. As for the "marketing" moniker, it was avoided because it's typically associated with selling to somebody as opposed to educating them. Indeed, a common theme put forth by Johnson was that Apple's marketing department was primarily concerned with educating consumers and showing prospective buyers what they can do with the product. One particularly interesting relayed how the marketing department at Apple worked closely with the product development teams. The marketing team was right next to product development and engineering team, so we understood deeply what was important about the product, what people's motivations were... what they hoped the product would achieve, what roles they wanted it to play in peoples lives. And because we were so close, we were able to translate that to our marketing efforts. Using the iPhone as an example, Johnson explains that there were any number of different advertising angles the company could have pursued for such a revolutionary device. Nonetheless, they chose to focus on just three things; that the iPhone was a phone, an iPod, and the Internet in your pocket. As for what it was like working for Jobs, she explained that it entailed "playing your best game every single day." Johnson further elaborated on how Apple's position as widely discussed and followed company gave it advertising advantages not many other company's can enjoy. For instance, during the six-month period after the iPhone introduction and before the iPhone launch, Apple only released one TV ad as it could rely upon the Apple community to talk, write, and read about the device. This phenomenon, Johnson said, is unique to Apple. "I don't think there are a lot of companies that can operate that way." During a Q&A portion of the interview, Johnson relayed two interesting stories about Jobs which serve to demonstrate how passionate he was about the arts and Apple itself. First, Johnson recalls how momentous it was for Apple to finally land The Beatles catalog of music on iTunes. In conjunction with that, Apple sent a team to the UK to pick up over a thousand never-before-seen photographs of the band. When brought back to Cupertino, Steve Jobs pored over the photos as they laid upon a boardroom table, walking around "in tears." For Jobs, it was an important milestone and a "really special moment." Second, Johnson recalls how emotional Jobs became in the wake of the Antennagate saga. Jobs, Johnson explained, was beyond sad and angry about the issue and how it was getting portrayed in the media. With Apple's core leadership team, along with the company's product and marketing teams sitting around a boardroom table, Jobs pounded the table saying, "This is not the company I want to be, this is not what we are building. We don't want to be that company, we don't want people to think about us this way." Driving the point home, Johnson explained that whereas The Beatles moment was one of tears, "this was sobbing." Jobs cared so much about Apple, Johnson explained, that the two were very much one and the same.
Steve Jobs reference in forthcoming Captain America movie
Marvel has released the first 11 minutes of Captain America 2: Winter Soldier to get fans excited about the feature. There's lots of exciting action, as you'd expect, but also an amusing reference to Steve Jobs. In the beginning of the clip, Steve Rogers is out for a jog when he comes across Sam Wilson. Now in the present day, Steve is keeping a list of things he ought to check out. Sam suggests he listen to Marvin Gaye's 1972 album, Trouble Man. When Steve pulls out a notebook to write that down, we briefly see the other items on his list (above): I Love Lucy (television) Moon Landing Berlin Wall (Up & Down) Steve Jobs (Apple) Disco Thai Food Star Wars/Trek Nirvana (Band) Rocky (Rocky II?) Seems the Captain intends to brush up on his Apple history. Also note that "Star Wars" has been crossed out. Someone must have warned him about the prequels.
The Verge reports possible release of Microsoft Office for iPad and other news from March 17, 2014
This one might be for the rumor mill, but considering OneNote for Mac was released today, The Verge is saying that Microsoft Office for iPad might be released later this month, after members of the media received an invitation to an event on March 27 in San Francisco. It just happens to coincide with a big-name Apple event taking place the same day... Other news from Monday afternoon includes: Google has announced a new version of its Google Play Game Services that will enable cross-platform multiplayer support for iOS and Android. If you want to buy a new Mac Pro but still run Windows 7 on it via Boot Camp, you might want to reconsider. Twocanoes blog discovered that the new Mac Pro only supports Windows 8 through Boot Camp. Former Apple Marketing Chief Allison Johnson talked during the Behance 99U conference about what it was like to work with Steve Jobs. To quote from Cult of Mac: One interesting anecdote shared by Johnson was the time she put together an internal memo on how to sell the original iPhone for the AT&T sales team. "Steve asked to see that email, and he edited it so that they would position it correctly. He would dive in at a level of detail that most human beings would never consider. A CEO looking at a sales memo to an internal sales group at AT&T. He cared that much." And kick back with these features: The worst article about the iPhone 6 has already been written Automatic brings the Internet of Things to your car Has iOS 7.1 broken or fixed your iOS device? TUAW wants to know! Haunted Empire: An unflattering and misguided look at the Tim Cook era How Eddy Cue won over Steve Jobs, when Jobs said no to an Apple HDTV, and much more How to create an animated GIF from your existing burst mode photos Rumor Roundup: No TV for you
How Eddy Cue won over Steve Jobs, when Jobs said no to an Apple HDTV, and much more
The premise of Yukari Iwatani Kane's upcoming book, Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs, is that Apple under the reign of Tim Cook is still struggling to secure its footing following the passing of Steve Jobs. Kane argues that without Jobs steering the ship, Apple has lost some of its innovative spirit and is devolving from a great company into a good one. I'll have a full review of the book up soon, but below are a few anecdotes worth sharing. Eddy Cue wins over Steve Jobs While now a household name for those who follow Apple, Eddy Cue wasn't a widely known figure outside of Cupertino until August 2008 when Steve Jobs tasked him with fixing the fumbled launch of MobileMe. MobileMe, of course, would eventually make way for iCloud. Now an integral part of Apple's executive team, Cue initially put his stamp on Apple by helping oversee the development and rollout of iLife, the iTunes Store and Apple's online store. In the process, Cue also served as a dealmaker by helping negotiate Apple's first iPhone deal with AT&T and even played the role of peacemaker when Apple invariably butted heads with record labels. A 2012 Cnet profile of Cue notes that he "helped prevent the relationship between Apple and the large record companies from collapsing" in 2007. These days, Cue has more than enough responsibilities to keep him busy. As Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, Cue oversees the iTunes Store, the App Store, iCloud, iAds, iTunes Radio, the iBookstore, Siri, and Maps. Quite a full plate, to say the least. A longtime Apple veteran, Cue's tenure with Apple stretches all the way back to 1989. Kane writes that Cue started as an intern at Apple whereupon he rose through the ranks. In one version of a story that he told everyone, he was plucked out of the IT department by Jobs during a meeting in which he had dared to voice an opinion about the topic at hand. When Jobs looked at him and told him to shut up, an undeterred Cue spoke up again, causing Jobs to throw a pen at his forehead. Cue, who by then figured he had nothing to lose, braced himself and offered up his opinion for a third time. This time, he won Jobs's approval. From that moment on, Cue became Jobs's guy... Kane writes that Cue and Jobs were particularly close and that Cue frequently visited Jobs when the Apple co-founder fell ill. In November, Jobs was inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame. Cue accepted the award on Jobs' behalf and spoke in glowing terms about his longtime boss. He was a colleague, but most important, he was my friend. We talked every day, we talked about everything. Even in my darkest days, he was there for me. When my wife had cancer, he was there for us. He helped me with the doctors and the treatments, he told me a lot about what he was going through, and her. And in many ways, she's here tonight because of him, so thank you, Steve. When Steve Jobs said Apple isn't making a TV Nearly every year, Apple holds a "Top 100" retreat where the company's best and brightest pile into buses and head down to a resort at Carmel Valley Ranch. According to Adam Lashinsky, who initially reported on the retreat in a 2011 Fortune article, the gathering is typically comprised of the top 100 employees Apple would theoretically want to keep if forced to start anew. Undoubtedly an honor to be chosen, attendees at these retreats are given sneak previews of Apple's upcoming product plans, sometimes many months in advance. It's been reported that attendees at previous retreats were given advance notice of the iPod, Apple's foray into the retail business, and the iPhone. Filled with meetings and presentations, the retreat provides employees in attendance an opportunity to discuss and ask questions about anything at all, without the typical veil of secrecy that typically shrouds the company. Apple's 2010 retreat was held that November, with Kane relaying that an employee there took advantage of a Q&A session with Jobs and asked if Apple is going to make a TV. Jobs didn't hesitate. "No," he replied. "TV is a terrible business. They don't turn over, and the margins suck. He added, however, that he wanted to own the living room. Of course, rumors of Apple releasing an HDTV have persisted for quite some time. Often times, analysts have been quick to suggest Apple needs to release an HDTV simply for the sake of entering a new product category, wholly ignoring that the TV business was and continues to be exceedingly unprofitable -- just ask Panasonic and Sony. So while Apple's future plans are anybody's guess (my invite to the retreat must have gotten lost in the mail), Jobs' statement about owning the living room is worth latching onto. It suggests that Apple, as is typically the case, is thinking bigger than just TV. It wants an Apple shaped living room experience that may be more simply achieved via the Apple TV than with an Apple HDTV. Jobs: Always a stickler for details With respect to the employee presentations that comprise a portion of the "Top 100" retreat experience, Kane writes that Jobs, per usual, was a stickler for the most minute details imaginable. Employee presentations, put together with Keynote of course, had to abide by precise guidelines. One font family per presentation, three or five bullet points per slide, never four, and titles 30 percent above the center line. The file size also could not be more than eight megabytes, just enough to show up well on a projection screen. Jobs hated big files. Tim Cook aims high and demands perfection Lastly, Kane provides some more color to the man that is Tim Cook. Known as a tireless and relentless worker, the Wall Street Journal recently provided a book excerpt highlighting Cook's high expectations and no-nonsense approach. From the start of his Apple tenure, Cook set colossally high expectations. He wanted the best price, the best delivery, the best yield, the best everything. "I want you to act like we are a $20 billion company," he told the procurement team-even though Apple then had only about $6 billion in annual revenues and was barely eking out a profit. They were playing in a new league now. Now one of Cook's first tasks upon joining Apple was to take care of the company's lingering inventory problem. On this note, Kane tells a story of Cook's first trip to Asia where he met with Apple's operations team in Singapore. At the time, the industry standard for annual inventory turns -- "a measure of how often a company sold and replaced its inventory" -- was 25. The goal, of course, was to maximize the number of inventory turns in the interest of efficiency. At the meeting in question, Cook's operations team explained how they might achieve 100 turns. Impressive, but Cook was thinking bigger. "What about 1000 turns?" Cook asked. The premise of the question was so outlandish that it elicited laughter from his team. Only problem was that Cook was dead serious. "I'd like you to look at it," Cook told them. Eighteen months after he started, Apple was turning inventory daily... Within a few years the Asia team even accomplished near infinite turns, the epitome of inventory management. It meant they had no inventory. Its operations were so lean that customers were practically buying the product as it was coming off the assembly line. While inventory levels would increase once Apple's product line began expanding in the mid-2000s, there was no mistaking Cook's talent as an operations whiz with exceedingly high standards for both himself and those around him. It's not exciting to me to improve by five percent," Cook had said. "Now double or triple it, that's exciting.
